Lord Melvedere's Ghost (19 page)

Taking a
deep breath, Cecily walked after him, holding her candle high
enough so she could see where she was putting her feet but not so
high that she could see the heavy cobwebs, and the creatures that
made them.

Jamie
paused and squatted down, studying the floor carefully.

“
It is quite clean,” Cecily gasped, staring at the floor tiles.
The tiles had a clear route down the middle that was free of dust
and debris, yet to the sides of them, running along the walls were
decades of filth and grime.

“
Come on, let’s keep moving,” Jamie muttered, glancing behind
him with a sigh. He realised then just how stupid he had been by
insisting on her coming with him, because he couldn’t watch her
back, but Jonathan had to keep an eye on the outside. It was
inconceivable to leave Cecily in the house, by herself, with the
suspicious and slightly antagonistic behaviour of Miss Emstridge,
and the potential threat of the French guards.

They
followed the long corridor down the back of the house and nearly
missed a hidden doorway. Cecily stopped and tugged on Jamie’s hand,
frowning at the increase in subdued noise coming from what sounded
like the kitchens.

Jamie
studied the door. The cobwebs covering the door had lain
undisturbed for some time, probably because the door was wooden,
and difficult to detect. It was dull and unvarnished and over the
course of time, had been overrun by cobwebs and dust until it
almost blended in with the walls encasing it. Except from the
handle that sat in circular abandon half way down.

“
It sounds like we are at the back of the pantry,” Jamie
muttered, mentally plotting the layout of the house. The short
right turn they had just taken would have brought them past the
back of the housekeeper’s quarters and that left them right now at
the back of the pantry. Making a mental note to check the pantry
later, his attention was drawn to a junction further
ahead.

Satisfied that this particular doorway hadn’t been used for
some time, Jamie’s attention was firmly locked on the disturbed
dust on the floor ahead of them. A few feet further and they found
themselves at what appeared to be the main hive of activity. The
corridor ran further ahead into darkness, and branched to the left,
heading toward the library, study and the front of the
house.

Jamie
felt a flurry of anger settle deep in his gut as they took the
corridor to the left. They found the end of the corridor that had
been used recently, all the way to his study.

“
God damn it,” Jamie snarled softly. Although the door still
had some dust on, the cobwebs around it had been broken, and there
was no dust on the handle. Someone had used the secret passage to
get into his study. He cast a glance back at Cecily, and pushed the
door slowly open.

“
Would you look at that?” he growled. He drew Cecily into the
warmth of the room but kept his booted foot against the door to
stop it closing behind them.

Cecily
was stunned. She stared absently at Basil who was watching them,
thumping his tail lazily on the hearth. She turned to study the
wall behind them, pushing at the panels while trying to ignore the
watchful eyes of the huge painting of Jamie’s father staring down
at them.

“
How on earth do you get into the passage from inside the
room?” She gasped, pushing and tapping on the wall
randomly.

“
Don’t make too much noise,” Jamie cautioned, taking several
steps back and staring at the doorway in consideration for several
long moments. He was as stymied as Cecily, and shook his head in
disbelief. The doorway remained open by itself but didn’t open by
pushing panels. “There has to be some secret lever or something
around here that isn’t as obvious as pushing panels.”

He hated
the realisation that someone in the house had been availing
themselves of his study when he wasn’t around. As he hadn’t been at
home of late and his study had been unoccupied, why had they felt
it necessary to use the secret passage rather than the main door?
Unless they didn’t want any of the staff knowing they were in the
room. Did that automatically make Miss Emstridge guilty? Or was
someone else entering his house for some other purpose, and using
the outside door behind the rose trellis as their entrance
point?

Jamie
felt his blood run cold and a sense of urgency unlike any he had
ever felt before swept through him. They could go back into the
passages, and spend the rest of the day uncovering which way they
all went, but it would be useless if they couldn’t find a way to
access them from inside the house. He was fairly sure that there
was a way in from inside the rooms, because anyone disappearing
into a wall would have been spotted by now by one of the
staff.

Determination straightened his spine and he moved to stand
beside Cecily, who was once again staring absently at the huge
portrait of his father.

“
Do you have a painting of your father in each of the
rooms?”

“
I don’t know, probably. Why?” Jamie frowned, wondering why she
found the portraits so intriguing. “Where are you going?” He
demanded when she moved back into the passage, holding the candle
aloft.

When she
didn’t answer, he cursed and followed her, closing the door
carefully behind him.

“
Cecily,” he whispered.

“
Sshh.” Cecily paused beside another door. This had also been
disturbed recently. She quickly turned the latch and pushed the
door open, unmindful of what was on the other side.

“
Wait!” Jamie cautioned, but was too late to prevent her
swinging the door open. Unlike the study door, this door swung
towards him into the passage. He peered cautiously over Cecily’s
shoulder as she stood in the doorway holding her candle
aloft.

“
It’s a secret room,” she gasped, repositioning the brick
sitting just inside the doorway to prop the door open.

“
It’s been used.” Jamie’s voice was deadly. Unlike the rest of
the passage, this room had been swept, or the floor had at least.
The cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and walls had been disturbed,
but it was the clean wooden crates sitting in the middle of the
room that drew his attention. There were at least eight, and each
of them had been moved recently. They were all unmarked but had
lids that hadn’t been nailed down.

Cautiously lifting one, he studied the haphazard jumble of
silverware, old porcelain and various ornaments. Each box contained
similar items and didn’t appear to have been packed with any
particular care.

“
Are all of these old things of your family’s that you no
longer use?” Cecily asked, struggling to absorb the sheer volume of
items that lay around them. There were plates, silver cutlery,
numerous ornaments and paintings. It was an amazing sight to see
and even more confusing because they were hidden from
view.

“
None of them look familiar to me,” Jamie muttered, putting the
lid of one box back carefully. Studying the room to make sure they
had put everything back, he motioned to Cecily.

“
Let’s move on and see what else we can find.” He was going to
come back when it was dark for a better look but right now, he
wanted to complete the tour.

His mind
was racing in so many different directions, making so many
decisions, that he didn’t know where to begin. What he did know
however, was that there weren’t going to be enough hours in the day
to get everything done. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.
Not only was someone entering of his property secretly, and using
secret passages in his house to do it, Cecily was increasingly at
risk while this person was able to move around freely, and
undetected, and he wasn’t going to allow that situation to
continue.

The
retraced their steps and stopped at another door that was clearly
the entrance to the library. It was the only room left on that side
of the house. Turning the handle, Jamie pushed the door silently
open, taking note of the fact that it too had recently been oiled.
Once confirming the library was empty, he pushed the door fully
open and walked into the room. It was clear from where he stood
that the door was used frequently. There was very little dust
anywhere in the passage and the floor was free of cobwebs, dust and
decades of decay. He strongly suspected Miss Emstridge was his
secret passage user, but why? What was she up to?

Cecily
held the door and followed Jamie into the room, glancing at the
wall around the door. She felt her blood run cold as she stared at
yet another painting of Jamie’s father. Was the man haunting her?
Everywhere she turned there were paintings of him, always behind
doors. She cast a dismissive glance around the room feeling as
though she was intruding on sacred ground. The urge to get out of
there was strong, and she found herself moving back to the doorway
only to stop and stare at the painting with new eyes.

“
Is it that simple?” Cecily whispered, her eyes locked on the
now hauntingly familiar face of Jamie’s sire.

“
Is what that simple?” Jamie asked, placing one hand on her
back he studied her face closely. Once again she was studying the
portrait of his father as though it was about to jump off the wall
and chase her out of the room. “He really was a nice man you know,”
he declared defensively.

“
I know,” Cecily replied steadily. “I also think that the
paintings are there for a reason.”

“
What do you -” He watched in astonishment when Cecily put her
hand on the panel directly behind the corner of the portrait and a
faint click was heard near the passage door.

Jamie
swung the door closed.

Cecily
pushed the panel again. The click moved the door.

“
Good Lord,” Jamie whispered, pulling the door open and moving
into the passage. “Do it again.”

Cecily
pushed the panel, the door swung open and Jamie reappeared in the
library.

“
There is a portrait of your father beside the passage doorway
in the study too.”

Jamie
was impressed, stunned and delighted with her cool logic. “We could
do with you on the Star Elite,” he muttered, only half jokingly. At
least she wasn’t afraid of his father’s portraits.

Thrilled
with their success, Cecily began to grow in confidence and nodded
toward the darkness. “Shall we go and explore a bit
more?”

Jamie
bit back a smile and waved her before him. “After you.”

Cecily
tipped her chin up and smiled supremely at him as she passed. She
was feeling rather pleased with herself and didn’t mind admitting
the fact. It was the only thing she had ever really applied herself
to that had given her a sense of accomplishment. She still had no
clue what was happening with the books in the library, or the boxes
in the hidden room, or have any clue as to why the passages were
there at all, but she had at least found a few answers.

“
Wait,” Jamie whispered, tugging on her hand and drawing her to
a halt. Something had caught his eye in the corridor ahead, and
made him stop. Turning back around, he studied the darkness behind
them. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end
again, and he silently drew Cecily to stand behind him.

“
What is it?” Cecily whispered, holding on to the back of his
shirt. She lifted her candle aloft but couldn’t see anything except
darkness.

Every
instinct Jamie had ever possessed warned him to remain perfectly
still. There was someone else in the tunnel. He cursed the darkness
and, although he had a gun, he hated to use it in such close
quarters on an unseen enemy. He wanted to see who he was fighting
blast it. Shaking his head, he wondered if he should just push
Cecily through into the library and charge down the corridor, until
his common sense took hold. It was better for his enemy to come to
him. He glanced at Cecily’s candle.

“
Put it out,” he whispered.

“
No,” Cecily replied firmly. It was her safety, her sanctuary,
and there was no possibility of anyone, not even Jamie, taking it
from her.

When
Jamie tried to grab the candle, she lifted it aloft only for Jamie
to try to snatch it from her. He slid one hand around her waist to
hold her steady against him while trying to relieve her of the
light. Cecily tipped her head back and glanced at the
candle.

“
What’s that?” She whispered, trying to ignore the sheer
masculine presence of Jamie who was flush against her.

Jamie
almost groaned, and had to struggle to keep his mind off the feel
of her in his arms. She felt so right being so close against him
that his body began to respond in a way that made him glad of the
darkness, and her inability to see his instinctive response to
her.

Glancing
up, he frowned at the missing bricks further up the wall. He moved
Cecily to one side. He had to stand on tiptoe, and even then it was
a stretch but, using the brick that Cecily had used earlier to prop
the secret room’s door open, he had enough height to be able to see
through the small holes; holes that had been cut into the painting
where his father’s eyes should be. He briefly contemplated sending
Cecily into the room to see if she could see his eyes but knew she
would be frightened by the sight of his eyes moving in a portrait,
so jumped down off the brick.